Murchison
Mount Murchison, which gives the division its name, is the dominant feature of the northern end of the West Coast Range, a 'backbone' extending 55 kilometres southwards to Mount Darwin.
At 1275 metres it is a conspicuous landmark in the region around Rosebery.
Mount Murchison was named by Charles Gould in February 1860 on his first gold-seeking expedition to the West Coast. Sir Roderick Murchison was a pioneer geologist and Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, in which Gould had been engaged.
Murchison and others had recommended Gould for membership of the Geological Society of London and Murchison, in response to the Tasmanian Government's inquiry, had recommended Gould for the position of Geological Surveyor of Tasmania. Gould had similarly named other mountains of the West Coast Range after prominent natural scientists of the time: Sedgwick, Lyell, Owen, Huxley, Jukes, Darwin.
The name continues with the Murchison River, a tributary of the Pieman, rising deep in the heart of the Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park. The river was named in honour of Murchison in April 1859 by the leader of another gold expedition, W.A. Tully. The Murchison River was dammed for hydro-electric power generation as part of the Pieman power development.
The Murchison Highway, built in the 1960s, provided the first direct road link between the West and North-West Coasts.
Earlier, a Dubbs locomotive, the Murchison, saw service on the Emu Bay Railway line between Burnie and the West Coast from 1901 to 1963. The locomotive is now at the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum at Zeehan.
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